This invention relates to dental instruments and particularly to endodontic instruments, systems and procedures for treating a tooth root canal in which the root canal is cleansed of bacteriological materials by physical and acoustic debridement and flushing with an irrigation solution, particularly the apparatus and equipment for providing irrigation to remove diseased and necrotic tissue, and providing aspiration to remove the irrigation solution and resulting debris.
Endodontics has become an important part of dentistry. Prior to common use of endodontic procedures, an abscessed tooth was typically treated only by extraction of the tooth. However, since the advancement of endodontics, abscessed teeth can be successfully treated to permit retention by a patient, for greatly increased health and physiological benefit. Endodontics has been one of the great advances in modern medicine.
The endodontic preparation of a root canal typically includes opening the root canal through the coronal area of the tooth and thereafter manipulating files and reamers within the root canal to physically remove as much as possible of the pulpal material. The pulpal material is typically infected or necrotic, that is, dead material; and any such material that remains in the root canal after the procedure is completed is a source of potential infection. For this reason, proper treatment of a root canal attempts to remove as much of the necrotic pulpal material as is possible. By use of files and reamers, a substantial portion of such pulpal material can be removed; however, it is virtually impossible in most cases to remove all such material by physical manipulation of tools within the canal. For this reason, in recent times procedures have been developed wherein the root canal is irrigated or flushed with a fluid to remove and/or neutralize organic pulpal material that remains after files and reamers have been employed and then the pulpal material and fluid is removed through aspiration.
Previous ultrasonic tips, including prior art (Maxwell US 2011/0020765 A1), which is herein incorporated by reference, were powered by an L-mode (longitudinal mode) transducer system, which results in vibrations of the tip of the needle in a 2-dimensional direction longitudinally; the resulting vibrations are in a single plane. The present invention is optimized to result in 3-dimensional vibrations being multi-planar, which may be accomplished while being utilized with an L-T (longitudinal-torsional) mode transducer system (see Bromfield, US Patent US App 2009/0236938 A1), which is herein incorporated by reference. The resulting vibration pattern resembles a multi-noded “jump rope” or whipping vibration around the long axis. The benefits of L-T mode transducer systems provide for better agitation of irrigant and acoustic debridement inside the root canal over just an L-mode transducer. It is believed that the resulting vibration pattern from use with an L-T mode transducer system may also be safer for the patient over prior art in that the motion will be circular and distribute the heat around the circumference of the canal and not be locally isolated inside the canal. The circular motion should also tend not to enlarge the existing root canal.
Another problem associated with the prior ultrasonic tips is the limited insertion depth into the root canal due to bulky apparatuses and/or material thicknesses to achieve designs resulting in the necessary resonance to clean the respective root canal. The present invention allows for use of smaller gauge needles as compared to prior art which in turn allows for the inner aspirating needle to reach deeper into the root canal for better cleaning closer to the apex.